In this two day course, students will learn the basics of leaf variety, and fruit, seed and nut forms.  You will learn how to show darks and lights using pencil, and learn how to use watercolour.  The first day will focus on drawing and painting fallen autumn leaves, and contrasting them with fresh green ones.  We’ll cover the basics of using and mixing watercolours, then have a go at painting a brightly coloured autumn leaf. The second day will focus on looking at the variety of seeds and fruits in the Garden. Students will learn how to paint shiny berries, think about the composition of a painting, and work on a watercolour sketch of an assortment of autumn fruits, nuts, and berries. Students will paint a variety of leaves and fruits from the gardens, as well as see tutor demos of painting an autumn leaf and illustrating a shiny berry.

By the end of the course students should feel happy using watercolours, be comfortable with colour mixing, know the basics of painting autumn leaves and shiny berries, and have a variety of drawings as well as some colour paintings of autumn leaves and autumn fruits, nuts and berries.

Suitable for beginners through to intermediates.

Lizzie Harper is a free-lance natural history and botanical illustrator working in watercolour, pencil, and pen. She’s the illustrator of “The Hedgerow Handbook” and “Foraging with Kids, and her work is in “The Bumper Book of Nature “ and HarperCollins Flower Guide.  She has also worked on flower identification charts for Field Studies Council, and illustrations for the Welsh Botanic Gardens. She works in her garden studio in Hay on Wye where she lives happily with a long-suffering husband and two lively children.